


Gunfire and Heartbeats

by Eurasian_Lynx



Category: Trinity Blood
Genre: Mars-era, but should i really tag them as original characters if they're someone else's ocs?, top 10 questions science still can't answer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-09
Updated: 2020-01-09
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:54:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22189738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eurasian_Lynx/pseuds/Eurasian_Lynx
Summary: "It won't take longer than an hour."That was nearly four hours ago.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 3





	Gunfire and Heartbeats

**Author's Note:**

  * For [flamewing80](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flamewing80/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Divergent Path](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20000164) by [flamewing80](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flamewing80/pseuds/flamewing80). 



Arthur was late.

The distant sound of gunfire had become monotonous, like the whirring of fan blades or the steady ticking of a clock. It was meaningless now, background noise. Inconsequential.

Abel and Arthur had happened to have the same day off. Naturally, they’d decided to spoil little Athina by spending the day playing with her. They’d broken out the few board games Arthur and Sonya had brought with them. After friendships were broken and families torn apart over Monopoly, Arthur had taught his daughter and friend a number of card games that still boggled Abel’s mind.

(Human beings were so creative. So many different things to be done with a deck of cards.)

Athina had even taught them a thing or two. She'd recently learned how to use a deck of playing cards like tarot cards and had decided to read their futures. The predictions had been mostly nonsensical, the little girl not entirely sure what she was doing, making up a few meanings in the ridiculous way only a child’s mind can accomplish. Arthur had had to thump his best friend on the back a few times to keep him from breaking out into laughter at Athina’s antics.

It had been winding down towards dinner time when Arthur was called to the front lines.

Arthur had been called first, and someone had to stay with Athina, so Abel was to sit this battle out.

Arthur had listened to the report and promised with a wolfish grin and a cavalier wink that he wouldn’t be gone longer than an hour. He’d surged out the door with a tired energy, trying his best to put on a good show for his little girl.

But Abel had caught the hint of a limp in his best friend’s leg. Arthur still wasn’t fully healed from the last battle.

The war was weighing on them all.

(But it shouldn’t have to weigh on a child.)

Abel and Athina had eaten dinner together, and played a few games of cards. He’d gotten her ready for bed, and when she asked when her daddy would be back, he’d tucked her in with the assurance that it had only been 40 minutes, and he’d be back before she woke up. She'd mumbled about it feeling like such a long time, and he had smoothed her hair with a warm hand and a gentle kiss, promising that it just _felt_ that way.

(It had been an hour and a half.)

That had been 2 hours ago.

Athina had woken up about an hour ago, sleepily asking if her daddy was back yet.

(She’d had a nightmare.)

Abel had said he wasn’t, but offered to come tuck her back in again if she was scared. She’d accepted with minimal complaint, only a quiet whisper.

(‘I hope he comes back.’)

Abel had shucked off his coat and boots, left bare foot in only his shirt and pants. When Athina had sniffled quietly as he tucked her in, he’d picked up both her and the blanket and crawled into the small bed with her. Now, he had managed to contort his frame to fit in the confines of the child-sized mattress, one leg hanging off and all, and had the little girl cradled against his chest. She was all bundled up in her blanket and sleepwear, face buried against him, ear pressed up right next to his heart.

The steady thumping drowned out the continuing sounds of the gunfire in the distance, and she’d eventually drifted back off to sleep.

Abel couldn’t sleep. Instead, he lay staring at the ceiling, face blank and unresponsive, the sound of gunfire monotonous and meaningless to his ears.

His arms had started to cramp up from holding Athina in this position nearly 50 minutes ago, but with a Crusnik’s strength, he had refused his muscles so much as a tremor.

(Athina would not be disturbed.)

He lay in the dark, ice-blue eyes open yet unseeing, looking for all the world like one of the many dead save for the rise and fall of his chest, and the steady beat of his heart that kept Athina lulled into sleep.

In time, the gunfire stopped, but still he did not move.

Perhaps he drifted off himself, because the next thing he knew, the light of the hallway turned on. It spilled into the room from the crack in the door, thankfully not falling on Athina’s face.

When Arthur poked his head in, he was met with a pair of eyes like a winter lake staring at him blankly from his daughter’s bed. The black-haired man had a new welt on his face, and seemed to favor one of his arms, as if his shoulder had been injured. He shuffled into the room as quietly as he could, sitting on the floor with his back resting on the side of the bed.

Before he could do anything, he felt Abel’s heel lightly tap him on the arm, something between a soft reprimand for frightening them and a quiet greeting. Arthur weakly tapped the other man’s calf with his knuckles, not sure what he was saying in return.

(Perhaps Arthur just being there to say something at all was all the response Abel wanted.)

Arthur reached up to lay a hand on his daughter, but before he could wake her up, she nuzzled into his hand in her sleep, and he lost all heart to disturb her.

So instead, he managed to twist himself into a better position with only a few winces. He was still on the floor, but now he was facing the bed. He reached up his left arm to wrap it around his little girl, while he pillowed his head on his right, resting the top of it against Abel’s ribs. Eventually, all three of them drifted off to sleep, the gunfire silenced for now, and the only monotonous noise the quiet rustle of their breaths and the steady beating of their hearts, which really wasn’t meaningless at all.

(Both Abel and Arthur woke up feeling like they had aged 200 years with the amount of cramps they had, but Athina’s excited and relieved cry of ‘Daddy!’ as she launched herself at her father made it all worthwhile.)

**Author's Note:**

> Just re-reading the first Divergent Path rewrite for the millionth time and had to write something about some of my favorite characters. <3 More specifically inspired by the line in Emperor's Mask where Athina says Abel stayed with her on the rare occasion he wasn't on duty but Arthur was.


End file.
